August 6, 2024
Review: Mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski shined in Source Song Festival’s opening night concert
“With each passing piece, Osowski strengthened her eloquent case for the power of song and why it deserves its own festival.”
By Rob Hubbard, For the Minnesota Star Tribune
August 7, 2023
Mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski celebrates the Source Song Festival's 10th anniversary
“Art song is a symbiotic relationship of music and words… it’s that art piece - it’s the focus on the creation of it and what that expresses, and then what is required of us in the detail, craft, and specificity of that expression so that our audiences can create something on their own.”
By Steve Staruch, Your Classical MPR
August 4, 2023
Source Song Festival celebrates its 10th Anniversary with Concerts
“It brings composers, singers and pianists together to create new songs and be mentored by veterans of the field. And she knew it had to be in Minneapolis.”
By Rob Hubbard, Special to the Star Tribune
July 26, 2023
Source featured in July edition of Gramophone Magazine.
“Across the pond, Minneapolis’s history of modern song – thanks to local composers Libby Larsen and Dominick Argento – continues in the Source Song Festival, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in August 2023 by hosting a 10-member faculty including Larsen, tenor Anthony Dean Griffey and pianist Warren Jones to work with vocalist-pianist pairs and several composers (‘a Manhattan experience at Minneapolis prices,’ is how Artistic Director Clara Osowski describes it).”
December 27, 2019
Source is #2 of “Top Classical of the DECADE” in Minnesota
“This August festival quickly became indispensable for its programming of art song and commitment to young singers.”
December 20, 2019
The 10 concerts that shone brightest in 2019 on Minnesota's classical scene
“Ten singers, three pianists, 26 songs by 26 different composers, all of them with Minnesota connections — Source Song knocked it out of the park again.”
August 7, 2019
Loons, lace & Prince: Minnesota is celebrated in song at Minneapolis festival
“For lovers of the classical art song, it was like Christmas coming early. Billed as “Six Decades of Minnesota Song,” the recital worked chronologically from 1960 to the present, with a set of four or five songs for each decade…
The recital ended with “Outside Work,” a recently completed piece by Minneapolis-based composer J. David Moore. Its sense of floating reverie was a perfect envoi to an evening that showed art song is alive and well in Minnesota, indeed thriving.”
August 9, 2018
New Minnesota tenor makes his local debut with beautiful songs of heartache
“Portillo is a recent Twin Cities transplant, and this was his debut recital in Minneapolis. It was also his first “Dichterliebe,” and he unraveled an interpretation already full of insight and individual temperament.”
August 4, 2018
Best of the Week
“The Source Song Festival has become a not-to-be-missed part of Minnesota summers, providing world-class recitals of art song. Curators Mark Bilyeu and Clara Osowski offer another fascinating week of events for 2018...”
January 5, 2018
Musicians will compete at Minnesota's 'electric' first SongSlam
“…the SongSlam concept seemed a natural fit with what [Bilyeu & Osowski] wanted to accomplish with their festival. “Source loves the tradition that art song is steeped in, but our mission is also to push boundaries every now and then,” he said. “This seemed the perfect way to talk about the idea that song doesn’t live in a box or in an encyclopedia or a library.”
December 22, 2017
Minnesota's best classical music concerts bubbled with optimism in 2017
“Canadian Art Song, Source Song Festival, Aug. 8: Undiscovered niches still exist within classical music. And this concert offered a lesson on finding them, with a superbly curated program featuring unfamiliar Canadian composers.”
August 13, 2017
Young tenor finds joy, heartache in Schubert song cycle
“Mixing public recitals with workshops and masterclasses, Source has quickly established itself as a major fixture in the Twin Cities classical calendar, purveying international standards of excellence.”
July 28, 2017
Looking for classical music in Minnesota in August? Check out these 3 festivals
“…From the inaugural festival in 2014, [Bilyeu] and Osowski have built Source into a weeklong celebration of art song…”
August 8, 2017
Classical music blooms in August
"Source Song Festival ... began as a brainstorm among pianist Mark Bilyeu and mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski. This year’s theme: “At the Headwaters,” because headwaters are where things begin..."
January 11, 2017
37 things we're looking forward to in the Twin Cities arts scene in 2017
"For art-song lovers, the wonderful Source Song Festival will rise again at venues throughout the Twin Cities, featuring world premieres by Minneapolis composers Libby Larsen and David Evan Thomas..."
June 29, 2016
Source Song Festival to salute Argento
"For lovers of song, the human voice and new work by proven and acclaimed composers, and for music fans who want to broaden their horizons, Source has it all."
July 29, 2016
Festival celebrates Dominick Argento, 'patriarch' of Minnesota composers
“Fans will have a chance to hear Argento’s prizewinning songs as part of the third annual Source Song Festival.”
August 31, 2015
Weeklong song festival at MacPhail
"True, Minnesotans love song and poetry, which together make up the art song, the festival’s focus… ‘There’s a place for art songs in the Twin Cities,’ Osowski said. ‘Especially by our Minnesota composers.’”
August 2, 2015
The art song lives at Source Song Festival this week at MacPhail Center
"...a fascinating week of workshops, master classes and evening recitals on the subject of the classical art song. Highlights include... Friday's recital by baritone Anton Belov, which offers a rare opportunity to hear an entire program of songs by Russian composers, sung in the original language."
August 4, 2014
New Source Song Festival puts listeners in touch with artists
"[Summer Song Festival’s] absence has left me wishing that local audiences had more opportunities to experience the special intimacy possible when the music is created by just a poet, a composer, a singer and a pianist. Well, such a chance has arrived again, and I’d suggest you seize it. The Source Song Festival is a new venture... seize this opportunity for intimacy.”
'Top Picks' Shout-Outs
August 5 2018
August 5, 2017
Aug 12, 2016
Aug 19th, 2017
April 5, 2017
Aug 5, 2016
July 22, 2014
Aug 4, 2017
April 3, 2017
April 7, 2016